Russia is an oil enterprise that’s going broke. In the short run, its economy will continue spiralling downward, triggered by budget shortfalls, devaluation, economic contraction, and more capital outflows. In the long run, Russia’s exports will diminish along with the rouble, causing imports to crater and bring its domestic manufacturing to a complete standstill. Already, companies representing 40 percent of its GDP have closed, its financial markets are in crisis, and Russia cannot attract foreign investment. This is not an economy that’s performing well. This is an economy that is sputtering and dying.
“Russia is in a tailspin,” said Yale University Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld in a recent interview with Germany TV network Deutsche Welle. “False data is recycled. Every industrial sector is down, retail is down, and it’s losing $1/2 billion a day on energy exports. Rouble values are another fake number. It is not an exchange-traded currency and there isn’t even a black market for it. It has no value because nobody wants a Rouble.”
That aged well.
Russia is not simply oil based. They have 1/7th of the world land mass. They have more mineral weath and sheer potential that the US which is becoming a communist hellhole.